Do you mean dust jackets? The oldest dust jackets were from the late 19th century. Their purpose was just to protect the book cover while they were in the store. Up until the early part of the 19th century, paper was rather expensive and books were quite a luxury. The way books were sold was with plain cardboard covers that were meant to be temporary, until the well-off purchaser bought the book and sent it to a bookbinder to have a custom binding made to match the rest of the books in his library. In such a situation, no dust jacket was needed, because stores didn't need to protect the bindings. But then paper got cheaper as the industrial revolution progressed and less expensive cloth bindings became standard for many books. It was at that point that booksellers started using paper dust jackets to protect the bindings from dust until purchase. They gradually became more elaborate. But none of these very early dust jackets survive because they were thrown away after the book was purchased, either by the book seller or by the purchaser. The first dust jackets we have are very plain. Thin paper, with nothing on them. Later, just the name of the book or ads about other books by the same publisher. By the 1920s, they'd started to make more decorative ones in bright colors. Even so, people often threw them away. For this reason, when buying rare books, the dust jackets are the most valuable part of the purchase. A first edition of The Great Gatsby without a dust jacket might be $5000-$8000. With a dust jacket it might be $200,000, because there are so few of them.